


Doing It

by flaming_muse



Category: Sports Night
Genre: April Showers Challenge, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-29
Updated: 2007-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-17 17:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/179271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natalie knows something, and she wants to tell many, many people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doing It

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted in my LJ on April 29, 2007

Clutching her clipboard tightly to her chest, Natalie bounded across the bullpen and made a sharp turn into the hallway. There she found Kim walking toward her, and Natalie grabbed her arm and dragged her over toward the wall.

"Have you been working out?" Kim asked, trying unsuccessfully to free her arm.

"Yes, and thank you for noticing."

Kim jerked her arm, but Natalie held fast. "It would be hard not to."

"Uh huh. Dan and Casey did it," Natalie told her in what she probably thought was a whisper, though her voice contained far too much excitement to be considered soft.

"They did? _Finally_." Kim stopped struggling. "Was it hot?"

"I don't know," Natalie said. "I wasn't there." She leaned in closer and grinned. "But yeah. It totally was."

Kim nodded. "No kidding."

"Smoking hot."

"Uh huh."

"Like a sidewalk in Phoenix in July. Smoking, steaming, fry an egg on it _hot_." Natalie's eyes lost their focus.

"Uh _huh_ ," Kim repeated dreamily.

"Yeah." After a second Natalie shook herself out of her own daze. "I need more details. I have to find Dan." She spun on her heel to continue down the hallway.

"I want to hear everything after the show!" Kim said.

"Try and stop me!" Natalie called over her shoulder. She bounded down the hallway and almost ran into Elliott.

"Ten minutes to VTR," he said by way of greeting.

"Dan and Casey did it," Natalie replied.

"Did what?" he asked.

" _It_." She punctuated the word with a waggle of her eyebrows.

He blinked. "It?"

"Yes, it." Natalie waggled her eyebrows again.

"Is there something wrong with your face?" Elliott asked.

Natalie sighed. "There's nothing wrong with my face."

"I think there's something wrong with your face. You were kind of twitching. Maybe you should see a doctor about that."

"There's nothing wrong with my face! I wasn't twitching; I was _signaling_. Dan and Casey, you know, _did it_." She tried a jab of her elbow this time.

Elliott did not look any less confused, but he did back away a step. "Okay," he said slowly. "Well, are they going to be doing _it_ again in the next ten minutes?"

Natalie's shoulders slumped. "Probably not."

"Okay." He checked his watch. "Nine minutes to VTR. Good show," he said and walked into the control room.

"Good show." Sighing again, Natalie turned back toward the bullpen.

"Hey, Natalie."

"Jeremy! Jeremy," Natalie said, perking up. She snagged him by the arm and pulled him into the editing room. She shut the door. "Dan and Casey did it."

"Did what?" Jeremy asked.

Rolling her eyes, she groaned, "God, not again."

"Not again what? What did I do now?"

"Not you, sweetie. Never mind." She held onto his shoulders and said very clearly, "Dan and Casey are doing it."

"Doing what?"

She threw up her hands. "It. _It_!"

"Oh. _Oh_. _It_." After a second of digesting that information, Jeremy looked out of the editing room window in alarm. "Right now? Isn't it time for the show?"

"Jeremy, focus. Not right now. In the past. Probably in the future. Probably a _lot_ in the future."

"How do you know?"

"Look at them. They could barely keep their hands off each other even _before_. Now that they've given into their feelings they'll probably be doing it in their office, in the studio, in the editing room - "

"I meant how did you know they were doing it, not - " Jeremy broke off and backed away from the couch, his eyes wide. He bumped into the desk and leapt away from it like it had bitten him. "Editing room?"

"Why not? They're two virile men in the primes of their lives, full of fiery passions they've been keeping locked up for years, and now that the dam has broken - "

"You're mixing metaphors again."

"Now that the _dam has broken_ ," she repeated more firmly, "they won't be able to stop themselves. Their world will be one giant free-for-all of carnal pleasure. Their playful bantering will become all-out foreplay, and they'll give into the desires they've been holding back for years, denying their existence even to themselves - "

"Okay, stop," Jeremy said with a pained grimace. "First, let me just say that the level of thought you've put into this disturbs me more than I can express, and, second, how do you know they're even..." He trailed off, apparently at a loss for words.

"Doing the horizontal mambo?" she suggested, having no such problem. "And maybe vertical, too, but in a sexy, naked way. Or not naked; that's hot too."

" _Natalie_ ," he pleaded, "I think we're getting off track."

She smiled hazily. "I don't think so."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we are."

"You're no fun."

"So you've said. Okay, let's start from the beginning."

"Well, Dan and Casey met ten years ago, and from the moment their eyes locked - "

Jeremy held up a hand. "Were you there ten years ago?"

"No," Natalie admitted.

"Then let's skip ahead to the part where they're doing it and you know about it, okay?"

"Fine. Dan came to work today wearing a Clemson sweatshirt."

Jeremy didn't answer right away, raising his eyebrows to encourage her to continue. When she didn't he said, "That's it?"

"That's it? That's _it_?" Natalie threw up her hands again. "My god, Jeremy, are you completely out of touch with the people around you? When it comes to the Textile Bowl, Dan is an ardent fan of N.C. State! How can you not know that?"

"Uh..."

"And _Casey_ always backs Clemson, though if you ask me I think he's doing it just to spite Dan. I mean, Clemson has the better record, sure, but Casey's never seemed to care that much about their - "

"Natalie!"

"What?"

"Have you considered the possibility that Dan lost a bet, hence him wearing a Clemson sweatshirt?"

She paused for a second before shaking her head triumphantly. "No, because we totally would have heard about it. Casey couldn't have kept it quiet."

"Okay, well, maybe Dan stopped by Casey's apartment and was cold, and - "

"Jeremy," she said, looking into his eyes, "they did it. Last night, and possibly again this morning."

"You don't know that," he said, but his voice was getting weaker.

"I do." She began to tick the points off on her fingers. "They came in together this morning, Dan was wearing Casey's sweatshirt - of a football team he roots against- and they're not looking at each other."

"They're not looking at each other?"

Natalie nodded. "A lot. And when they do, they turn red."

"But - "

"And Dan let Casey put alliteration in forty-two. Alliteration with _Ls_."

Jeremy shut his mouth, and he seemed to be having trouble swallowing. "They're doing it," he said finally.

"I told you!" Natalie kissed him on the cheek. "Okay, it's show time. See you there, sweetie."

"But - "

Natalie was out the door before Jeremy could finish his thought. She ran into Isaac in the hallway. "Isaac! Dan and Casey are - "

"If you're going to finish that sentence with anything other than 'in their seats in the studio' or 'on fire' I don't want to hear it," Isaac told her.

"Okay." Natalie went into the control room.

"I can see them on the camera, and yet I can't hear their voices," Dana was saying to the room at large. "I'm fairly certain that our audience is expecting to do more than look at their admittedly pretty faces for the next hour."

"We're working on it," Dave said.

Natalie pulled Dana a step away from the desk. "Did you know that Dan and Casey are..." She trailed off when she saw the harried look in Dana's eyes. "You know what? This is a bigger conversation that probably requires alcohol. We can talk later."

"Okay," Dana said and turned back to the monitors. "Am I hearing _Chinese_ now?"

"Mandarin," Elliott confirmed.

"We're working on it," Dave said again.

Natalie skipped out of the door to the studio, skidding to a halt across the desk from Dan and Casey.

"I still don't like that alliteration in forty-two," Dan said, frowning at his script.

"It's better than your pun," Casey replied mildly.

"You, my friend, do not appreciate the intrinsic beauty of a good pun."

"I'm fairly certain 'good pun' is an oxymoron."

"Hey, there's no need to resort to name-calling," Dan said, and Casey almost contained his grin.

"Hi, guys," Natalie said with a bright smile.

"Hey, Natalie," Casey said. "How's the sound problem going?"

"I had no idea you guys were fluent in Mandarin."

Casey pointedly looked over at the clock where it was ticking down the last few minutes before air. "I hope our viewers are, too."

"Uh huh. So, anyway, I just wanted to be sure you packed an overnight bag tonight so you don't have to borrow each other's clothes again." She was very gratified to see their heads snap up in unison with the same deer in the headlights look on their faces. Her smile got even wider.

Dan recovered first, and he gave her a cool, quizzical look. "What are you talking about?" He made a little note on his script.

"Dan. Danny. Daniel. Don't you know better than to try to hide something from me?"

"I would never dream of hiding something from you, Natalie," he replied. "I still remember the marshmallow fluff on my chair incident."

"As well you should, and you should be expecting a repeat. I was thinking of adding strawberry jam this time. They go so well together."

"I'm not hiding anything from you."

She leaned closer. "Clemson, Danny? _Clemson_? Come on."

He flushed beneath his makeup and cleared his throat. "Uh, well..."

"And don't even try to tell me you stopped by after your morning jog."

She dared him with her eyes, and he finally dropped his and mumbled, "It was all he had clean."

"And you," Natalie said to Casey. "You fixed his tag. I saw you."

Casey looked down at his script. "It was sticking out."

"And so was his hair before you smoothed it down afterwards?"

"I don't - "

"I have eagle eyes, boys," she said, pushing away from the desk and strutting back to the control room. She was pleased to see them still gaping after her when she turned to shut the door.

"There you are," Dana said. "How do you feel about holding up cue cards next to them for our viewers to read along?"

"I told you she'd know," they heard Dan say from the monitors.

"We have sound," Dave announced to the control room.

"It's okay as long as she doesn't tell Dana before I do," Casey replied to Dan in the studio.

"Thirty seconds live."

Dana clicked on her microphone. "Tell me what?"

"Nothing," everyone said.

Dana sighed. "It's going to be one of those nights, isn't it."

"It already is," Dan said.

Natalie clicked on her own microphone. "But _so_ worth it. Right, Dan?"

"Fifteen seconds."

Dan's mouth crooked into a grin as he looked over at Casey. "Oh, yeah."

"I knew it," Natalie said smugly, and then she went to work.


End file.
